Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
I also happened upon this RPPC of an American Legion Locomotive Parade in Los Angeles. [c.1938]
eBay
I've never heard of this particular event.
Intrigued: I searched & found one other photograph related to the event in the Pomona Public Library.
pomonapubliclibrary
I couldn't help but notice the 'think-outside-the-box' contraption the legionnaires from Lawrenceburg, Indiana brought to the event. [see below]
DETAIL
I don't see how, by any the stretch of the imagination, that can be a 'locomotive'...but what they have created, a Flying Pegasus!, is exceptionally impressive. . .and super cool.
hmm..do you think they drove it like that all the way from Indiana? |
Although it is technically correct to caption these as American Legion, they are in fact pictures of the hard-drinking, hellraising subgroup known as the "40 and 8," named for the legend on the sides of French railroad cars. I've posted about them before (my uncle was a member) but you can tell who they are by the use of the term "Voiture" for their branches (American Legion branches are called "Posts"), the multiple 40/8 legends on the vehicles, the "La Société des Quarante Hommes et Huit Chevaux" on one of the locomotives, and the distinctive clown smocks/shirts that they wore. By 1939 they were probably already starting to sober up as their membership entered their 40's; they had their heyday in the 1920s. Note the two "real" Legionnaires in the dark uniforms in the bottom picture, looking on with what appears to be less than amused body language.
A summary of the somewhat checkered history of the "40 and 8" can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_...s_organization
and the web page of their strictly sober present incarnation (with a sanitized summary history) can be found here:
https://www.fortyandeight.org
Cheers,
Earl